How consistent are you really, with your blog?
Do you stick to a set schedule, being rigorous with your writing, or are you a bit more unreliable, putting up an article here and there when you have time?
One of the things I’ve learned over my time as a blogger is that it’s really important to be consistent, as to develop a great relationship with our readers and offer them what they need, we have an obligation to offer consistent, accurate and timely content to support them when they come to visit our sites. Plus Google likes consistency.
A lack of consistency with your blog can cause all sorts of problems. It runs the risk of…
- Losing your readers as they never quite know when you may get around to posting up a blog article
- Making you lose focus, forgetting what you started out blogging for, and why you are continuing to do it
- Getting you to forget all about your blog when work priorities get in the way, meaning your site is always at the very bottom of your list of things to do
- Irritating your readers when they can never quite find what they are looking for
- Leaving you blogging about unrelated issues or subjects which are so off target to your actual niche that they are worse than useless for people who come to your site to find things out.
With all these negatives, it’s evident that a great blogging schedule can really support you to be consistent and stick to an ongoing routine.
Routine is great for bloggers, keeping us right on track and reminding us at all times what we need to do each day to produce a fantastic site that keeps our readers engaged and interested.
It may sound boring, but your blog is a bit like a pet in terms of what we need to do to keep it happy and thriving.
Regular posts (at least three times a week preferably) on specific industry-related subjects is the best way of getting your site noticed by the major search engines, upping your traffic each day and keeping your customers happy. Publishing to a set schedule of topics also supports you to stay really focussed and establish exactly what your place is in the huge market you have available to you online.
You can develop consistency in blogging through a number of ways.
The first is to always remember who you are writing for, and establish the kind of thing they would like to read about on your site.
Secondly, write a basic schedule for when you are going to post up articles, what kind of topics you will be covering, when you are due to invite guest posters in, and whether you are going to make a split between word blogs, video blogs, audio blogs or all three.
In this way, you’ll stay focussed all the time, and your blog will thrive like a happy pet, comfortable in a consistent and reliable routine.
Your newfound consistency will also support you to build blogging in to your daily routine, making it second nature to pop up an article on schedule, hunt out new subjects to write about, and respond to comments and questions from customers promptly.
What’s your blogging schedule? Do you post regularly?
Please share your views in the comments below.
Consistency is often difficult for me. I try to write daily, publish daily and where possible interact with people daily.
What makes it difficult is juggling this as a new career option and trying to build it as a business at the same time.
Barry
Perhaps you should only write and publish 3 or 4 times a week rather than daily?
Andrew
I guess I’m still struggling to find a balance.
It’s like most I guess. When you base your future on something that many people are entering, you try to do and be the best you can.
No one said it was “easy” work, but it’s more rewarding than I had ever expected it to be!
Thanks for the suggestion about only writing / publishing perhaps 3-4 times a week. I think that is where I’m ultimately heading.
Barry
…and sometimes other things get in the way of your schedule as well.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
thanks for sharing this. Yes it’s true. We need to keep consistent in our article posts to keep our readers happy! 🙂
But I don’t understand why some blogs that never updated are higher in ranking in Google as compared to mine. Is consistency really that important? I have targeted keywords in domain, description etc, even with more links based on yahoo site explorer, but still lower in ranking. Though I know that my blog is still quite new, 4 months+.
David
They could have more content (i.e. blog posts) or have backlinks from higher ranking sites.
Having a backlink from a PR9 site is worth thousands times more than backlinks from PR0.
Andrew
Hi,
Indeed these are all great things to do to your blog. I have recently started my blog and have learnt a lot over the last couple of months. There is so much more to learn still. Thanks for the info.
Anuj
There is a lot to learn – good luck!
Andrew
Andrew,
Consistency is definitely important!
I publish a text-based post on Mondays and a weekly video tip on Fridays, also on every 3rd Friday I publish a podcast.
I try to have extra time block on a weekly basis, where I batch my content creation.
For example, just recorded 4 videos for my blog, which are published on a weekly basis. 2 hours of work provided content for the next 4 Fridays …
Batching and the scheduling is my way of handling the consistency.
Timo,
I like your approach – batching the content creation up…really good.
Andrew
Thanks for writing this post Andrew. I have to admit, I have not been very consistent with my blog and publishing new posts.
I would love to be able to publish at least a few But, with 2 full time offline jobs, its kind of hard for me to find enough time to research and write new posts.
But, reading your post, motivated me by giving me (or reminding me of) good reasons for doing whatever it takes to do publish consistently. Thanks or that Andrew.
Satrap
2 fulltime jobs and a blog…man – when do you sleep?
Andrew
I watch my traffic dip and then write a new post. Blogging is addictive because you can watch your site fade before your eyes if you don’t keep it fresh.
Astro
Very true. You have to get into a schedule and stick to it…even if it’s only twice a week you publish a blog post.
Andrew